jalapeno popper stuffed bread;

This bread is ooey, gooey deliciousness.  And I really do mean that, so watch out for some falling dip when you’re stuffing your face!  My friends and I had a splat or two on the floor by the time we were done!  But it was gobbled up in pretty much no time flat, let me tell you.  It really is a quintessential appetizer recipe, and wouldn’t be a horrible pot luck recipe if you had access to a toaster oven, but it’s not really a make-and-carry recipe.  It’s definitely better warm and fresh from the oven.

We did another “Pokewine” night, which originally was us all drinking a ton of wine and playing old pokemon games on hard mode, but has since evolved into our group of co-workers hanging out, drinking a bunch and playing fun games–pokemon non-exclusive.  Yesterday we went to Cheesecake Factory Happy Hour (them fried mac & cheese balls, mmmm!), and then headed back to my place.  Watched some more Beat Bobby Flay drinking game (see my last post (pineapple vodka slush) for the details), played some pictionary, and even ended up dancing by the end of the night.  It’s always a great time with these jokers.

Something I learned making this recipe: you CAN make it ahead.  Make the dip part, and then save the bread-stuffing/baking for the next day.  However, when I made it fresh and taste tested the dip, it was way high on the spice level for me.  After refrigerating it for a day though, a lot of that spice died down and it left even me–who’s lame when it comes to spice–wanting more!  So if you do plan to make this ahead, do a taste test before stuffing the bread and if you want to add back some of that heat, I suggest tossing in chipotle powder or cayenne powder to amp the flavor up again!  I wish I had thought about it before stuffing the bread, but at that point it was more effort than it was worth.

I do consider this a simple recipe because nothing in it is particularly hard.  The most labor-intensive piece is frying the bacon, but your reward is that you get to smell bacon throughout the house!  So it’s not so bad.  I used a whole wheat baguette, and actually started with 4 jalapenos.  I bumped that down to three in the recipe because as I mentioned before, the freshly made dip was on the extreme side for me.  But I know that I’m a wimp when it comes to spice, so feel free to adapt to your tastes!  Go crazy with the jalapenos or add in some cayenne/chipotle on top of the fresh jalapenos if you feel like setting your mouth fully on fire.  Let me know if you adapt the recipe, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Related posts:

baked jalapeno poppers; stuffed jalapeno popper rolls; loaded baked potato rounds; cheesy garlic pull-apart bread; bagel chips; everything bagel dip;